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Preserve

To Preserve Peas for Winter Use

A method for preserving peas by drying, storing, and rehydrating them for winter use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

To Preserve Peas for Winter Use

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Dry and store

  1. Shell the peas, then scald and dry them.

  2. Spread the peas on tins or earthen dishes and place them in a cool oven once or twice to harden.

  3. Store the dried peas in paper bags hung up in the kitchen.

Cook dried peas

  1. Soak the peas in water for one hour.

  2. Add the soaked peas to a pot with cold water and a bit of butter, then boil until ready.

  3. Add a sprig of dried mint while boiling.

Preserve in jars

  1. Pack shelled peas tightly in strong jars or open‑mouthed bottles for long‑term storage.

  2. Cork and tie down the jars tightly, then place them upright in a large pot with hay between each jar.

  3. Fill the pot with cold water up to the neck of the jars and bring to a boil.

  4. Boil for 1.5 hours in cool, moist weather or 2 hours in hot, dry weather.

  5. Do not remove jars until the water has cooled.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + minttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh peas
The main food, which softens and becomes tender when soaked and boiled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the peas as they cook in the water.
Dried mint
Adds a fresh, aromatic herbal flavour to the boiling peas.

The step that matters

Do not remove jars until the water has cooled. Sudden temperature changes can crack hot glass jars and break the seal. Letting the jars cool slowly in the water keeps them intact and the contents safely stored.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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